Privacy Policy

Personal and/or sensitive information is collected directly from you when you interact with Open Doors. For example:

• Making a donation or purchase from our Store
• Sending or receiving an email
• Making an enquiry/complaint
• Visiting our website
• Applying for a role at Open Doors
• Taking part in an event
• Volunteering for Open Doors
• Signing up to a campaign, emails, Magazine and letters.
• Where we have a face-to-face relationship with you

Information may be collected in person, over the phone, through our websites, social media, email or from something you’ve posted to us.

We collect information from third parties such as event organisers (e.g., a marathon event like Muskathlon) or fundraising sites like Everyday Hero, or through trusted telefundraising partners who call on our behalf, when you have agreed to support ODA and have given your consent. You may wish to check their privacy policy to find out more information on how they will process your data.

We may collect information available publicly, such as: articles, newspapers or social media.

Where you provide the information, we may collect sensitive information such as:

• Your denomination or church;
• Your religious beliefs;
• Criminal record if applying for employment.

We provide privacy collection notices at or before the point of collection (or as soon as practicable) to ensure you understand how your information will be used and disclosed.

We also collect personal information when you participate in supporter surveys, whether completed online or on paper. When paper surveys are used, scanned forms are securely processed by our third‑party provider PaperSurvey.io, which only receives the information necessary to perform this service and processes it under strict privacy and security standards. Where practicable, surveys may be completed anonymously. Information collected through surveys may be used for research, analysis, segmentation and prospect research to help us better understand and engage our supporters.

The information we hold will typically include some or all of the following:

• Your name
• Postal address
• Email address
• Phone number
• Your year or date of birth, to ensure we send you age appropriate materials
• The activity that you have completed or the information you have requested
• Information on your household for acknowledgement purposes (ie. Husband and wife)

If you make a donation, we may collect:

• Bank details
• Credit card details

If you interact with us online, we may also collect:

• IP addresses
• Details of pages visited
• Details of files downloaded.

Website usage information is collected using cookies: see the section on cookies below.

Sensitive information (such as religious belief) is collected only with your consent and only where reasonably necessary for our activities.

For employees and supporters travelling with Open Doors, we may store and share with a travel organiser or company your medical details, and if you participate in an event that we have organised, we may ask you to provide information to make sure we can manage the event safely and efficiently. We may also ask you for details of any accessibility needs you may have, so that we ensure our event is inclusive, in line with the provisions of The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA).

We also collect the information you provide in supporter surveys (for example, your responses, opinions and preferences) and may combine it with information we already hold about you to improve our programs and communications.

When paper surveys are used, scanned forms are securely processed by PaperSurvey.io to convert them into digital data.

We may also receive information about you from other sources (including public sources).
Where we receive information from other sources, we handle it in accordance with this Privacy Policy and the APPs.

We ensure that we have appropriate technical controls in place to protect any personal data you provide. For example, we use SSL Encryption and our network is protected.

We ensure that access to personal data is restricted only to those staff members or volunteers whose job roles require such access and that suitable training is provided for these staff members and volunteers. All employees and volunteers sign a confidentiality agreement when they commence working with ODA.

We also work with trusted third-party service providers who must meet strict security, confidentiality and data protection requirements. These providers may store or access information overseas. We take reasonable steps to ensure overseas recipients do not breach Australian Privacy Principles (APP 8).

We also take reasonable steps to protect information collected through surveys, including data processed by our third‑party provider PaperSurvey.io, which applies strict privacy and security standards consistent with GDPR‑aligned practices.

We retain personal information, including survey responses, only as long as needed for the purposes outlined in this policy and then securely destroy or de‑identify it, as required under the Australian Privacy Principles

We may use the personal data we collect to:

• Keep you up to date on news and the impact of Open Doors’ work;
• Ask for financial and non-financial support, such as volunteering, events or prayer;
• Process donations you give us;
• Provide information or resources, such as fundraising or campaign packs or our magazine, that you have requested;
• Provide a personalised service, such as customised website content or personalised emails, social media targeted ads;
• Advertise to you through Facebook/Instagram;
• Keep records of your relationship with us, e.g., feedback you have given, requests or complaints you have made;
• Classify supporters by location/state;
• Use information collected through supporter surveys for research, analysis, segmentation and prospect research to help us better understand and engage our supporters.

We may also use limited analysis of publicly available information and your historical engagement with us to tailor our communications in a respectful and proportionate manner. You may opt out of such tailoring at any time.

We have a duty to make sure that we are spending your donations wisely, and that means doing research and analysis to ensure we send you the most appropriate communications, including acknowledging your past support and actions, demonstrating accountability and impact. In order to work out whom to contact, when to get in touch and what to say, we carry out the following activities:

• We look at information such as postcodes of supporters.
• We look at whether donations have been given regularly.

This helps us to tailor appropriate communications to you, to demonstrate the impact of your support, as well as improve your experience as a supporter.

We may use your information to invite you to become involved with us in new ways or raise funds.

We may analyse information you provide through surveys and other interactions to tailor communications. This can include research, segmentation, data analysis and prospect research so our communications are timely and relevant.

We do not use third-party data brokers or engage in invasive profiling. You may request that we do not use profiling for direct marketing.

Your settings or the privacy policies for social media and messaging services might give permission to access information from these sources. If we do access this data, for example to assess the effectiveness of our communications, we will not currently add this to your personal details that we hold. We advise you to check the privacy settings on your social media provider to ensure you are happy with the level of privacy you have chosen.

If you are a new supporter, we will process your personal data on the basis of the consent you provide us with. You are free to request a change to your contact preferences at any time by contacting us by phone, post or email, as shown in the section ‘Your Preferences & Updating Details’ below. Where you have previously asked us not to contact you in this way, we will continue to respect your contact preferences.

We will send you whatever you’ve asked for, e.g. a resource you’ve ordered – or write a letter to acknowledge a gift. This doesn’t affect your other communications preferences. We may also share details of the difference our work makes and update you on other ways you could support the persecuted church, for example letter writing, using new resources or raising funds.

Where our communications involve sensitive information (such as religious belief), we will only use that information for direct marketing with your consent, which you may withdraw at any time.

We store your information with a third party secure storage provider.
From time to time we may employ trusted suppliers to carry out tasks on our behalf, such as fulfilling orders, managing events, supporting our systems, or processing donations. These agents are bound by contract to protect your data and we remain responsible for their actions.

We may also engage reputable telefundraising providers to contact supporters on our behalf. These providers must comply with strict privacy, security and ACMA telemarketing requirements, including identifying themselves clearly, using caller ID, calling only during permitted hours, and immediately honouring any request not to receive further calls.

Some providers may operate overseas. In such cases, we take reasonable steps to ensure those providers comply with Australian privacy standards.

We may invite you to take part in supporter surveys to help improve our services. We collect only information reasonably necessary for our activities, in line with the Australian Privacy Principles’ requirements for lawful, fair and limited collection.

For paper surveys, we use PaperSurvey.io, a secure third‑party service that scans and processes completed forms. PaperSurvey.io receives personal information solely for this purpose and must handle it in accordance with Australian privacy expectations, including maintaining appropriate security measures.

What are cookies?
We collect data using cookies. A cookie is a text file that is sent from our website as soon as you visit the site. It is stored on your computer/phone’s hard drive and helps us to identify your computer (not you) and collects information in an aggregate, anonymous way.

How do we use cookies?
Cookies may be used to collect information about your visit to our website, such as:

• Traffic data
• Location data
• Device information
• The date and time of your visit
• The pages that you visit.

We may use this information to:

• Customise the content on our website and help to understand visitors’ current and future needs
• Aid internal administration and analysis.

Managing cookies
Most browsers allow you to turn off the cookie function. To do this you can look at the help function on your browser.

Third-party cookies
ODA works with a number of third-party suppliers, such as Youtube, Facebook and Google Analytics, who set cookies on our website to enable them to provide us with services. These are mainly used for reporting and advertising purposes so we can improve the way we communicate. They may also use tracking pixels, which are commonly found in advertising to track the effectiveness of adverts.

You can access and request correction of the information we hold about you. You can also change your preferences on which communications you receive from us, including marketing and fundraising materials, or how we contact you, by mail, phone or email, at any time.

You can change your preferences and update your details by:

Calling: 02 9451 2999
Emailing: info@od.org.au
Write to us at: PO Box 551 Baulkham Hills NSW 1755

We endeavour to ensure that we comply with the Australian Privacy Principles. If you have an inquiry or complaint, please contact us using the details below. We will respond in a timely matter.

If a data breach occurs that is likely to cause serious harm, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner in accordance with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.

Some of our technology and service providers operate overseas or store information outside Australia. When we disclose personal information overseas, we take reasonable steps to ensure the overseas recipient does not breach the Australian Privacy Principles. We may disclose personal information to the following countries: [insert list]. This list will be updated as required.

We do not adopt, use, or disclose government related identifiers (such as Medicare or Tax File Numbers) as our own identifiers.

We retain personal information only as long as necessary for our functions or legal obligations. When no longer required, information is securely destroyed or deidentified. We require our service providers to do the same.